From the Mailbag: 'The Definitive Top 10 List'
An interesting item hit the Slice inbox yesterday.
OK guys, put this in your pie and smoke it!
A couple of caveats: The list isn't quite as definitive as it claims to be, as it is missing any critical analysis of Staten Island, Queens, and Bronx joints. When you guys post this on the site (front page, please), perhaps you may want to refer to it as "The Definitive Manhattan and Brooklyn Top 10 List." We've all been to these places enough times to know what's going on and who's coming with their A game and who isn't.
Seltzerboy, as a fellow SU alum, I tried to get in touch with you when I first moved to New York, and I also furnished you with a copy of the Syracuse Pizza Manifesto, another masterwork I coauthored. But to no avail, I never really heard back from you other than a weak Orangeman shout out. We'll take you choads in a pie-off any day of the week! Now, without further ado....
Similar to the Syracuse Pizza Manifesto authored by MC Treats and DJ Bubbles, here are the official NYC rankings based solely on objective criteria and intuitive observations please forward to Seltzerboy at Slice and pizza guru Ed Levine, as they should have done this many years ago:
1.) Patsy's in East Harlem
2.) Grimaldis, under the Brooklyn Bridge
3.) Di Fara, Avenue J in Brooklyn
4.) Una Pizza Napolitana, 12th Street, Manhattan
5.) Lombardi's, near Little Italy
6.) Nick's, Upper East Side
7.) Totonno's, Coney Island
8.) Franny's, Park Slope, Brooklyn
9.) No. 28, The Village, Manhattan
10.) La Villa, Park Slope, Brooklyn
Some may quibble with this ranking, but certainly the top four are above reproach and there is no need to order any more than a pizza Margherita: fresh dough, mozz, tomatoes, and basil.
We hope to be hearing from you soon, and we expect that the list will be up on the site by the end of the week! I attached my picture if you'd like to include my profile on your website as the new pizzameister in town!
Yours in piehood,
DJ Bubbles
Thanks, Bubs.
Say, can you resend that Syracuse Pizza Manifesto?
Hasta la pizza,
Adam
More Dispatches from the Bubbster
DJ Bubbles Wishes You a Happy New Year
A Sunday Night Slice Walk
Vezzo, the DJ Bubbles Drive-By
Isabella's Oven, The DJ Bubbles Drive-By
The Best Grandma Slice in New York?
The Syracuse Pizza Manifesto
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36 Comments:
What does this fat ass know? Di Fara at #3? Please. We all know what they use to roll their dough....but Bubbles probably gives them bonus points for dat.
Slice Petin' Chief at 10:29PM on 10/19/06
Yum, but where's Adrienne's? Heh.
Slice Yvo at 11:30PM on 10/19/06
Patsy's sucks!
Slice Weekly Journalist at 2:29PM on 10/20/06
Absurd. My top ten, in order: 1. Di Fara (then ten thousand feet of space, then) 2. Totonno's (Coney Island) 3. UPN 4. Gnocco 5. Adriennes 6. Luzzo's 7. John's 8. DeNino's 9. Franny's 10. Vinny Vincenz
Slice Mr. Cutlets at 5:29PM on 10/20/06
if di fara is so good then where the f is demarco's on your list? it's basically the same slice, ya hoser. vinny vincenz? sicilian doesn't count, we're talkin nyc-style, otherwise L&B would've been in the top 5. and we all know that they're margherita leaves something to desire.
Slice DJ Bubbles at 6:05PM on 10/20/06
I'd like to nominate No. 2 pencils for our top 10 list of the best writing instruments. Watermelon is easily the best member of the Cucurbitacae family. Oh, and despite what you may have heard elsewhere, white is still the best color for toilet paper. Last time I checked, pizza in Syracuse was about as good as the SU football team. I can't even name 10 pizza joints in the Salt City. I can't name 10 football players, either.
seltzerboy at 7:26PM on 10/20/06
Not to be truculent, but if Spumoni Garden is your idea of good pizza, you would be very happy living in Colorado Springs. A piece of white bread with Chef Arturo sauce and no cheese isn't going to break my top ten list anytime soon. DeMarco's would in fact be on the list if their pies were a little more carefully attended to, and if the could get the square simulcrum right.
Slice Mr. Cutlets at 10:27PM on 10/20/06
Seltzerboy, you should learn to take a joke. As far as pizza in Syracuse goes, everything is relative, therefore, capable of being ranked. It's something fun to do; not to be taken too seriously. Thanks for the reply via the message board instead of an email.
Slice DJ Bubbles at 10:49PM on 10/20/06
What separates a Vincenz sicilian slice from an L&B one? Where is the great divide there? Vincenz is decent but it's no DiFara Sicilian. L&B isn't either, but to label one subpar and the other a top 10 is completely arbitrary when there's very little difference between the two in terms of quality.
Slice DJ Bubbles at 10:53PM on 10/20/06
kudos to this bubbles character for at least trying to rate pizza in NYC and the Cuse as it has generated some good debate and spirited discourse. He seems to have nailed Manhattan and Crooklyn and I would also query this forum on the best pizza in Queens (Nicks?) Staten (Deninos?) and The Bronx ? As a newcomer to Gotham I would also ask if it is necessary to venture to New Haven to try Frank Pepe - inquiring minds want to know !
Slice The Real Slim Shady at 3:58AM on 10/21/06
And yet again poor Arturo's gets no fucking respect. Grimaldis and Lobmardis have so fallen in quality that even on Arturo's worst day they are still making better pizzas than those two.
Slice Jason Perlow at 6:13AM on 10/21/06
Actually, as I said in my E-mail response (written before my original posting here), which may well have gotten lost in cyberspace along with your "manifesto," I would love to see your musings on Syracuse pizza, precisely because I've never given it much thought. I guess it just hasn't been the same since Archie's closed to make way for Starbucks. That was a joke, by the way. And no, I don't have a list of the top 10 stores to be shuttered by Starbucks. But Zagat might. In my day there were two stationary Winnebagos with various offerings of cheap, fast foods: Ali Baba (between Sadler and the Dome) and Ziggy's on the east side of Dellplain. The pizza from those two--along with everything else--was wretched. It's amazing what drunken college students will eat for a buck. Now they've got Kimmel open half the night, which has Pizza Hut. Not sure which was worse. Needless to say, I'm a bit ignorant on the finer side of Syracuse pizza. By all means, please share your manifesto. On my next trip to the white north, I may even forgo settling for the Marshall Street fare.
seltzerboy at 5:09PM on 10/23/06
S'boy: I have DJ Bubbles's Syracuse manifesto. I'll post it later today.
Adam Kuban at 5:34PM on 10/23/06
Bubbles, are you high? L&B and Vinny Vincenz aren't even in the same universe. L&B DOESN'T HAVE CHEESE ON IT. IT'S NOT EVEN PIZZA. Josh
Slice Mr. Cutlets at 6:18PM on 10/23/06
So where's Staten Island on this list? I'm not suggesting that these places listed may not be great, but you're seriously missing out when you neglect the forgotten borough.
Slice Franklin Teany at 6:37PM on 10/23/06
i already said SI (nor BX or queens) wasn't included so the list can't be completely exhaustive. I would welcome an SI trip with fellow pie-lovers or a list (they can serve some purpose for novices looking to immerse themselves in the local culture, Seltzerlad) of some SI-pie highlights. Cutlets, you again expose your NY-pie ignorance when you mention L&B as cheeseless as anyone with any taste (both meanings of the word) knows that their top notch mozz is on the bottom, a layer below the sauce.
Slice DJ Bubbles at 7:57PM on 10/23/06
Seltzerlad, one other comment: I attached the manifesto to the last email I sent which, I suppose is par for our discourse, also must be floating somewhere out in cyberspace. I swear, one of these days we're gonna have a pie-down. The guys from the Brooklyn Pizza Tour will serve as referees/moderators!
Slice DJ Bubbles at 8:02PM on 10/23/06
with all due respect m. cutlets. historically, "sicilian" doesn't have mozzarella at all, so spumoni gardens is traditional. as an italian american girl who grew up in brooklyn's pizza heydey -- the 1970s -- when you could get a decent slice (a slice which would now be deemed "fantastic") on the way home from any school or under any train station, difara's is merely the formerly standard pizza slice of any pizzeria in the brooklyn of the 70s -- you know, the brooklyn that was black, italian, chinese and jewish (not a midwesterner to be found). however, even in this now extinct pizza utopia, certain places were acknowledged as particularly excellent -- totonno's among them. ddm makes a nice pie, but it is a different species from totonno's. the dough alone is worth a small doctoral dissertation. also, doesn't totonno's us a brick or wood burning oven? compare that with a gasburning bari's - nuh-uh.
Slice dubarry at 5:40PM on 10/24/06
and bubbles, spumoni gardens, a locale of which 3 generations of dubarrys have been customers, does not have mozzarella on the pie -- sauce and parm. it's based on focaccia, which if you talk to any local soprano-type-italian-american-gourmand, they will tell you is what their grandmother made at home. (and they will call it "fuh-gotz.")
Slice dubarry at 5:48PM on 10/24/06
My Top Ten [in reverse order] 10) Ray's 9) Ray Bari's 8) Original Ray's 7) Famous Ray's 6) Famous Original Ray's 5) Not-So Famous Ray's 4) Not-So Famous or Original Ray's 3) Infamous Ray's 2) Infamous and Unoriginal Ray's 1) Pizza Hut [Midtown West -- Shoutout!!]
Slice Chris at 6:13PM on 10/24/06
Dubarry, you are right about l&b and i, the bubble man, am wrong. does that make me your goomah?
Slice bubbs in trubbs at 10:13PM on 10/24/06
tremendous discussion in recent days by DJ Bubbles, Veal Cutlets, Jim Boeheim wannabe Seltzer Boy, etc - as an insider I know that Slice NY staffers pull good salaries for keeping this site going. Kudos for a job well done !
Slice The Real Slim Shady at 3:50AM on 10/25/06
makes you my goomBah. i would be someone's -- i'm thinking a young sonny coreleone here -- goomah.
Slice dubarry at 6:58PM on 10/25/06
finally got around to reading bubble boy's list. i think he makes some fine points particularly with respect to patsy's & lavilla. i don't think patsy's pizza is particularly great, but how they get that uber-garlicy essence when you ask for garlic is beyond me. never been attained by anyone else. as far as lavilla -- i like the one in bergen beach which is much more italian-y. i can't get enough of the youth of my people -- very dumb, but fundamentally very attractive in their undershirts and nail extensions. i understand there is a la villa -- according to mama barry, a wellspring of pizza info herself -- in howard beach. i would imagine the pies there are pretty good too. i must say mommy knows her pizza well, having had her wedding shower in the 1950s at "the pizza bowl" on ave x near ocean avenue. great pizza place: picnic tables in the backyard and booths in the restaurant (checkered tables over everything). this is the kind of place that would have people treking from all boroughs if it was around today.
Slice dubarry at 7:22PM on 10/25/06
Here's my East Village top ten. The Pizza Triangle 1. Gnocco 2. Una Pizza Napoletana 3. Luzzo The Lesser East Village Cluster 4. Vinny Vincenz 5. Five Roses 6. Gruppo 7. Muzzarella The Outlying East Village Cloud 8. Little Frankie's 9. Stromboli 10. Village East Pizza (avenue C)
Slice Mr. Cutlets at 5:35PM on 10/27/06
Good stuff, Mr. Cutlets. I will have to give Gnocco, Luzzo, Adrienne's and good ol Arturro's a try this weekend. That's right, all this weekend; you could say that I'm 'in it to win it'! Who's with me? Selterbomb? Veal Cutlets? The preeminent pie mind of our generation, Adam Kuban? Ed Levine, you out there? Anyone up for a pieoff??? I'm a one-man army over here, guys! We need to form a NYC-pie coalition! Piemen of the world, unite!
Slice DJ Bubbles at 8:42PM on 10/27/06
A quick non sequitur: one place I've always thought is underrated for your standard slice: Bleecker Street Pizzeria!
Slice DJ Bubbles at 8:43PM on 10/27/06
luzzo's was better when it was that other place that used be part of that place on bleecker street -- the italian bakery that had the good italian bread (particularly whole wheat), what the hell was it called? not rocco's. now they weigh down the pizza with too much stuff on top. only americans think this is the sign of a good pizza. o i remember now. ZITO's.
Slice dubarry at 10:37PM on 10/27/06
What the fuck??? L&B and Rosa's aren't even on the top 10?? What about Rizzo's??!! The quality of pizza is a matter of opinion, my own personal favorite is Gino's who has locales all over NY and Long Island.
Slice Gagino at 1:56PM on 04/21/07
My Top Ten 1)L&B Spumoni Gardens(because Tony Soprano says so!!!) 2)Rosa's Maspeth 3)Rizzo's 4)DiFara 5)Gino's 6)Pizza Sam 7)Nonno's 8)Regina Pizza 9)Pizza Boy 10)Famous Pizza
Slice Gagino at 1:59PM on 04/21/07
What fuckwit put Grimaldi's, Lombardi's, and Patsy's on a top 10 list?? Like Ray's they are both tourist traps and make overrated pizza. Lombardi's is not real New York pizza, they have a restaurant in Philadelphia for crying out loud. DiFara is the only worthy name on that list, the only other good one is L and B.
Slice Jeff at 4:42PM on 05/11/07
Wooooah wooooah wooooah! I'm sorry, but both Lombardis and Grimaldis are almost inedible. Their pizza is horrible beyond belief. Both of them are tourist oriented pizza factories and they should not be on that list. BTW, I think San Marco in the Italian bit of Williamsburg (which isn't 99% hipster... YET) deserves a spot in the lower rungs. They've got a good pie and their prices are way more reasonable than any of the 10 up there.
JFores at 10:51PM on 07/05/07
Oh yeah, Napoletana sucks too. The pies are not special at all, they're -TINY-... like MICROSCOPICALLY TINY... and the service was so incredibly bad. If di Fara was a sit down restaurant it would have better service then Nap. My top 5 would probably be... Di Fara (my love), Tottonno's (they're not what they used to be. At all).... uh... San Marco's in Williamsburg? Sorry running out of places. I only eat pizza from di Fara and San Marco's on an at least once a week basis, other places are just experimentation.
JFores at 10:55PM on 07/05/07
L&B is only good after midnight with lots of friends. I'm obviously referring to their squares. There is cheese on there, it's under the sauce. And guys, that stuff isn't even remotely close to foccacia. I lived in Genova for almost two years and I am STILL trying to replicate Genovese foccacia without luck. I miss it :(
JFores at 10:59PM on 07/05/07
take Una Pizza Napoletana off that list. They would be lucky to be top 30.
benlee at 1:27PM on 07/31/07
get una pizza napoletana off there. They are lucky to be a top 30 pizza in the city.
benlee at 12:36AM on 08/01/07